Thursday, March 31, 2011

A really beautiful day for me is a day when Michael Barrier decides to release one of his seminal interviews. We had four dry years until a few weeks ago when Michael started to publish about one interview a week. Yesterday saw the release of his (and Milt Gray's) Milt Kahl interview.

I believe the only thing that could make me happier from a Disney-history-related stand point would be to see Michael publish some of his interviews with more obscure (or seldom interviewed) Disney artists: Aurelius Battaglia, Homer Brightman, Bob Carlson, Phil Dike, Carl Fallberg, Gerry Geronimi, Campbell Grant, Jerry Hathcock, Eustace Lycett, Cliff Nordberg, Martin Provensen, or Ralph Wright to name a few, as well as his interview with Tex Avery. I have a feeling that we might not have too long to wait. Beautiful days are here again.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

I have to admit that I am really looking forward to being in June to be able to pick up Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: "Race to Death Valley" (Vol. 1), then in October to get Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: "Trapped on Treasure Island" (Vol. 2). Granted, I have already read all of the Gottfredson strips, thanks to a half-bootleg edition released in East Germany many years ago, but what will make those two volumes (and the ones that will follow them) special is the quality of the 50-page of editorial content that each will contain. David Gerstein has done a spectacular job lining up the best Disney-comics historians (starting with himself) for the job and the visual documents he has unearthed will bring suprises even to those of us who know most about Disney history.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

This just in from Gunnar Andreassen: [I found "A Trip with Mickey Mouse" for sale on eBay some months ago, but it was too expensive for me. Fortunately the description had some good scans of artwork. A very special book as the story takes place in Great Britain. I guess that the artist that made these drawings was the same that made the Disney drawings in "Princess Elizabeth Giftbook".

Sunday, March 27, 2011

When Mike Van Eaton mentioned to CartoonBrew a few days ago that he was preparing an outstanding auction to take place on May 14, he was not kidding. I have just seen the catalog and this will be the Disney / animation art auction of the decade. Too much good stuff to mention it all in one post so I will show selected elements over the next few days. CartoonBrew mentioned the letter from Walt to Ub (the center piece of the auction) but there is a LOT more to discover.

Believe it or not, the Herb Ryman section itself is 4-page long and filled with art I had never seen before.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

One of the key Disney artists about whom we still know very little is director Nick Nichols. I had the chance to stumble upon an interview with him at the Disney Archives a few weeks ago. I believe it is the only interview with Nichols in existence and I am looking forward to getting a copy of it (it will then need to be transcribed and released in Walt's People, of course).

In the meantime, here is an email I received today from Paul Trotter:

[I have run across information about Disney director Nick (Charles A) Nichols cartoon strips. Prior to his joining Disney he drew several strips including the Adventures of Peter Pen and Just Supposin about 1927-1937. He also sold a cartooning course. I've included some links below.

If you have not seen these before I thought you might find them interesting.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Since Jim Korkis made us aware of their existence in an article he released many years ago under the Wade Samspon nom de plume, Paul F. Anderson, David Gerstein and I have been desperatly trying to locate the Disney comic strips created by Disney artist Fred Spencer for The DeMolay Cordon newsletter.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Here are a few books that you might find of interest.

The most astounishing by far is a biography of Edmundo Lassalle, a Mexican who came to the U.S. in 1935, became a U.S. citizen and an assistant to Nelson Rockefeller, then a member of the Roosevelt Administration before becoming an American espionage agent in Spain while employed as the European Representative of the Walt Disney Company.

So Mike Lah (of MGM fame) was back at Disney (or rather freelancing for Disney, I suspect) in the late '50s. This was complete news to me. Mike had worked at Disney in the '30s. An in-depth interview will him will appear in Walt's People - Volume 11.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

I have to admit that I jumped on my chair this morning when I discovered this book. Apparently the Memoirs of General William Potter (known to all of us as Joe Potter and famous for having led the engineering efforts of Walt Disney World) were released in 2005 and I don't believe any of us knew it! I have just ordered a copy and will review it as soon as I receive it.

From my perspective this is definitely major news (in the realm of Disney history that is).

- Interviews by Michael Sporn (I can't tell you how much I agree with Michael Sporn's view about the importance of getting access to Michael Barrier's interview transcripts - I am a unashamed addict to those).

- John Hubley, an interview by Michael Barrier (I can not tell you how glad I am to see Michael release 2 of his interviews in less than a month. I really hope we will be lucky enough to soon get access to more of his treasures. Although not really Disney-related, this interview and the Robert McKimson one just made my day.)

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

In April last year I mentioned a live-action project produced by Carl Fallberg and Lars Calonius and featuring several Disney artists, called Grizzly Gulch. I just realized that more info could be found abou that project in Robert Tieman's book The Disney Keepsakes.

In the issue of the Studio’s internal newsletter, The Bulletin, from April 4, 1941, repdoduced in the book, we find the following article by John Hubley:

Monday, March 07, 2011

Lowry Tague (known at the time as Lorey Tague) was one of Disney's artists during the Laugh-O-Grams years.

I was therefore very excited when Michael Barrier located his memoirs (released in 1962). Unfortunately the book contains only a few lines about his Disney career. I am still happy that it exists, though, and that Michael located it.

Friday, March 04, 2011

Julie Svendsen just emailed me to let me know that an exhibition of Walt Peregoy's art is happening until the end of March at the John Aaroe Group located at 14242 Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, CA. Some of you in the region should definitely consider visiting it.

As a reminder:

[After joining Walt Disney Productions in 1943, Walt Peregoy contributed his unique talents to a number of classic animated features and shorts including "101 Dalmatians", "The Sword in the Stone", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Paul Bunyan" to name a few.

In 1958, along with Marc Davis, Eyvind Earle and Josh Meador, Walt participated in “4 Artists Paint 1 Tree”, a short documentary directed by Josh Meador that illustrated the diversity of the artistic talent of The Walt Disney Company.

In 1974, Walt joined Walt Disney Imagineering where his creative skills and unique visual style helped shape the EPCOT Pavilions, The Land, Journey Into Imagination and Wonders of Life.

Ever since he could hold a pencil, Walt's prolific creativity has yielded paintings, drawings and sculpture. To this day, he still creates his art in his home studio.]

Thursday, March 03, 2011

You may remember that the very first post of this blog a few years ago dealt with a 1963 Three Little Pigs sequence specially created by Disney for the Mexican movie Cri-Cri, El Grillito Cantor.

During my visit to the Disney Archives two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of finding a little more information about this project.

The sequence was originally supposed to feature the 3 Caballeros in addition to the 3 Little Pigs.

On June 11, 1963, a memo said: “The Studio has agreed to produce for the Instituto Nacional de Proteccion de la Infancia – Mexico, an animated sequence of approximately 470ft., featuring the 3 Little Pigs, Donald Duck, Panchito and Jose Carioca.”

That sequence would get the production number 5954-039.

The animation draft dated July 9, 1963 contains the following information: